How does Chuck Schumer still have a job?

Submitted ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨EarWorm@lemmy.world⁩ to ⁨[deleted]⁩

DISCLAIMER: I’M NOT FROM USA.

From the outside looking in, it seems like at least half of the inaction of the “left” is because ol’ Chucky just hinders everything.

“We wrote a strong letter” was probably the first time I actually, genuinely didn’t understand how he’s still the leader of the party.

Since then I’ve done some digging, and it seems like the guy is actually quite delusional. Not even his imaginary friends vote for him, which is kinda sad. Understandable though.

Now he’s talking about voting on whether they should block the military action in Venezuela. The ongoing one. The one that’s been planned publicly for months.

So, how does he still have his job?

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jontree255@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
The Democrats are cowards and fucking terrible politicians. They’re also owned by big money as much as the Republicans.

The entire US Congress except like 4 people needs to fucking go. Not just Schumer.

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- EarWorm@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  That’s a fair point. Almost seems like a two-party system is fundamentally flawed.
  
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  - jontree255@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    Yeah it’s part of the problem. I think it’s exacerbated by the fact that the US basically legalized bribery with Citizens United.
    
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  - FinjaminPoach@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    I think it’s not even the fundamental flaws that make it so bad (they could theoretically be worked-around or fixed), I think at some point the system was captured by a group that to this day ensures both parties remain ineffectual and operate towards the same war goals.
    
    Saying “the whole thing is a pantomine” seems like a lazy throwaway remark from some stranger you meet at a bar or your disillusioned uncle, and yet it’s exactly the conclusion you have to come to. We are controlled by the illusion of democracy and illusion of own influence
    
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- JohnnyEnzyme@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  
  They’re also owned by big money as much as the Republicans.
  
  Idiotic takes like that are as much of the problem as anything else.
  
  Holy hell, the number of know-nothings who upvoted that nonsense…
  
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  - BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    If you don’t think the Dems and MAGA serve the same Sociopathic Oligarchs, you are delusional.
    
    They are like the management tier in your workplace. Some managers are pretty cool, and some are terroristic assholes who make every moment at work agonizing. But despite the difference in approach, they both want you to toe the company line, and put the company’s interests ahead of EVERYTHING. Nice or not, they both want to enslave and exploit you on behalf of the company.
    
    We’d all rather work under the nice manager, but if we really want to make the workplace work for the workers, then we have to make the managers fear the workers enough that they appeal the top. That’s unlikely, and eventually we will be forced to bypass them, and take our grievances to the top ourselves.
    
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Sharkticon@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
Fun fact Chuck Schumer doesn’t even pretend that he works in favor of his Democratic constituents. No Chuck Schumer’s entire career is based off of serving the needs of the Baileys. A fictional couple he invented that he bases all of his ideals rhetoric and legislation around. They are Republican. Look this up if you never heard before it’s the weirdest fucking thing.

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- EarWorm@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  Oh yeah, Baileys are the imaginary friends I was referring to. Thanks for reminding me!
  
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morphballganon@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
The simplest explanation is that the oligarchs have assured him he’ll continue getting his salary if he continues being ineffective.

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the_abecedarian@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
because the capitalists like him there

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niktemadur@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
The fact of the matter is that if Democrats had been elected, there would have been no invasion of Venezuela, nor Iraq two decades ago.

Let us not kid ourselves. Non-voting eligible American voters let trump take the reins again, with control of Congress and the Supreme Court, knowing he could pull shit like this at any moment, yet still sat on their lazy asses TWO Election Days, fondling their purity, bOtH pArTiEs ArE tHe SaMe LoL, and now they’re like… “C’mon Schumer… dazzle me and my most excellent purity over here!”

Elections have huge consequences, so spare us the righteous outrage. Whatever blood gets spilled, it’s also on those soft, tender, lily-white hands of non-voting deadweights.
Also, twice is a pattern: “Vote for a woman?!! Me?!! When PIGS FLY!!!”

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- K1nsey6@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  There hasn’t been a single war that the DNC hasn’t been bloodthirsty to get into. Iraq was bipartisan and Biden expanded the bounty on Maduro to $25m. House Democrats just gave $8b more in funding than what was requested for war.
  
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- OshagHennessey@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  Correct. Instead, dems would have declined to roll back any of those laws “so we have something to campaign on next time” until voters get fed up with their ineffectiveness and vote R next time. THEN, we get the invasions.
  
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- Jmsnwbrd@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  It’s easier to complain and blame the “other” instead of the actual people doing the deed, it seems. I am so sick of the generation of people who like to say that all “blank” are the same - instead of looking for something worth fighting/voting for. Nuance takes time and paying attention takes away from the fun things. Local politics is easier to discern which of the parties is actually governing, so the least that can be done is voting for the party in your local elections that actually falls parallel to your values (or is the closest) - but again, it’s easier to just complain than to actually do something about it.
  
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- ThomasWilliams@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  Biden increased sanctions on Venezuela.
  
  During the Venezuelan election, when the US-backed opposition leader said that he wouldn’t give the oilfields back to the US, Biden had their financial support cut off and arrested opposition members living in the US.
  
  The Venezuelan policy is bipartisan.
  
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OshagHennessey@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
When you consider that the Democrats’ job is to offer only token resistance and lose elections, you realize he’s doing his “job” very well.

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Formfiller@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
It’s pretty simple really he gets money from Israel and the oligarchs to pretend he’s opposed to things in the weakest and least convincing way possible. He’s doing a good job at the job at pretending to be opposed to facism while preventing any movement left so he continues to get paid to do that.

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- Boiglenoight@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  This is, sadly, how it seems to be. Both he and Hakeem Jeffries seem to obstruct real opposition from the Democratic Party against Trump and the Right in any meaningful way.
  
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  - OshagHennessey@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    It’s every democrat since Clinton and every Republican since Reagan. Carter was the last real president this country had.
    
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jaggedrobotpubes@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
His job is to lose and stall when instructed to by nazis, and he is a goddamn genius at doing it (though a dumbass for failing to see how dumb it is to do that)

Point is, he’s doing his job: losing.

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- resipsaloquitur@lemmy.world ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Are we talking about Chuck Schumer or Mike Johnson?
  
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Sumocat@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
His job is U.S. Senator, which he holds because he received the most votes from the state of New York. “Senate Minority Leader” is a position he holds because no one else wants it. It’s not a Constitutional position, like Speaker of the House or President of the Senate, and the U.S. Senate is a house of equals. Being “minority leader”bestows no added power, only responsibility for representing his party when negotiating with the other party. If another Senate Democrat wants to be responsible for negotiating with a senile man-child, they can call for a vote whenever the minority caucus meets.

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- shalafi@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  And like Pelosi, he received the most votes from the state of New York because, “That’s our guy!” We gotta fight these people where they live.
  
  Mitch McConnell had the game down pat. He’d campaign like hell in Kentucky, be damned what the rest of the US thought of him. He’s shaken the hands of 10s of thousands of little old ladies who say, “That Mitch sure is a nice man!” (got that last bit from an article about how he worked his campaigns, not making it up)
  
  Jesus, if lemmy only knew about Orrin Hatch or Robert Byrd (KKK member!). 🙄 Those dirtbags lasted for decade after decade after decade by appealing to their constituents, not the US as a whole.
  
  Former House Speaker Tip O’Neill: “All politics is local.”
  
  Side note, Mamdani has this game figured out! Except he went out and listened to his voters, of all sorts. Fascinating man to watch. No talking points shoe-horned in as replies, no sound bites, legitimate listening skills and answers. Bill Clinton was such a master. We will watch his career with great interest!
  
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- ivanafterall@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  
  which he holds because he received the most votes from the state of New York
  
  Technically?
  
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  - porcoesphino@mander.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    What do you mean?
    
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Reading_Raptor@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
Think of it like a ratchet mechanism. He’s not there to move things left, he’s there to keep things in place while the right takes a little break to twist up the tension even more.

That’s vegetal how the left works in the US now. They’re not actually there to create change or movement, they just hold the place and keep things from moving until the right can get back in power. It’s…awful and obvious once you notice it.

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sin_free_for_00_days@sopuli.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
How does/did Schumer, Grassley, Graham, Pelosi, McConnell, Feinstein, and so on, stay in power? I always get downvoted and naysayed when I say this, but American voters fucking suck. Just the absolute worst. People will blame the two party system, and they do have a point there, but those same people don’t show up in the primaries to make a difference. They’re too scared to vote for change, as they’ve shown over and over. Just a bunch of ignorant, self-satisfied, cowards.

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- OshagHennessey@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  We did show up to the primaries enough to make a difference in 2016. We voted for Bernie Sanders as our candidate. The DNC told us all to go fuck ourselves, they’re a private institution, they can do whatever they want, the votes are just a formality, and appointed Hillary Clinton as the Democratic candidate instead.
  
  Please, tell me more about how it’s fault of the voters.
  
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  - sin_free_for_00_days@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    Ah, I thought that Hillary ended up getting more votes. I must be wrong. I’m in no way denying the fuckery that went along with it, from the DNC to media doing everythign they could to keep Bernie out, but in the end, voters are the ones who vote. Tell me again about how it’s not ultimately the voters.
    
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El_guapazo@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
They’re the party of the status quo. They’ll probably take 50 years to reinstate the rights lost by this administration.

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- OshagHennessey@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  I can alreadyhear them now. “We need something to campaign on next time.” As though doing your fucking job isn’t something you can campaign on.
  
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dermanus@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
Major chunks of the country will always vote for the same party. That’s why you hear talk about blue states and red states. He’s in a safe area, so he has a negligible chance of losing even if he does a terrible job.

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IWW4@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
… because he was elected.

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Buffalox@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
AFAIK he was OK during Trump’s first term, back then it was Pelosi holding back.
Now he is making the same mistakes Pelosi did.

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- ivanafterall@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  Mistakes, yes. Unintentional, no.
  
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givesomefucks@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
His leadership position was voted on before the DNC chair.

So his threats to cut off funding to the state of any Dems that wouldn’t back him still had some teeth.

It doesn’t now, mainly because the DNC immediately jumped into the largest twin esture into state parties, ever.

He’s been a lame duck all but maybe a month of this senate leadership term, and will almost certainly lose it next year.

If he doesn’t, it’s a bad sign.

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Netrunner@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
The problem is simple. Congress and Senate treat their job like jobs. Not sworn duties.

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Jhex@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
politicians are the least accountable poeple in Murica (probably in the continent)

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blockheadjt@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
What mechanism would you suggest be used to change that?

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prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
The Baileys’ votes each count as 1000 votes

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j4k3@piefed.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
Gerrymandering criminals.

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